


Repetitions on a familiar theme

by crystalusagi



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: HP: EWE, M/M, Slash
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-12-04
Updated: 2012-12-04
Packaged: 2017-11-20 07:53:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/583030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crystalusagi/pseuds/crystalusagi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Draco Malfoy goes back to a rebuilding Hogwarts for his 7th year.  Harry Potter is there also.  Some things remain the same; some things change.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Repetitions on a familiar theme

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: Un-beta'd & never been Britpicked. I found this while rummaging about in my Google Drive. I don't remember when I wrote it or why, though I suspect it may have been the beginning of some collab fic that never actually took off. After some edits, I'm now posting it here as a multi-chapter free-writing exercise. No idea where this is going, but I'm going to try to write two chapters a month. Let's see how this goes

After the war, after his mother had gotten them acquitted and his father--who had been in too deep to earn anything close to an acquittal--had gone off to Azkaban to serve his 10-year term that could have been much, _much_ longer, Draco went back to school. 

He had to. His future had always been mapped out in vague terms that mostly had to do with glory and status and high places at the ministry--and, very briefly, with helping the Dark Lord achieve world domination. Now that the Dark Lord thing was out of the question and the ministry position didn't seem likely either, Draco was faced with the reality of having dropped out of school to become a Death Eater at 17. Career prospects didn’t look very rosy. So he went back to school.

He hadn't expected, that first morning back, to see Potter there. He didn't think that the Savior of the Wizarding World would be there; after all, once one had saved the world, what other credentials could one possibly need? But when the welcome feast began, there he was, standing proudly with Weasley and Granger at Gryffindor table. 

At least they hadn’t had to sit next to each other. Now that the War was over, the Houses had been abolished--more because there weren't enough students to fill them than because of any sudden change in sentiments from the faculty, Draco suspected. The seating in the Great Hall was a free-for-all. 

Some of the 5th years who were now actually 7th years along with himself, still flocked to him as they had before the war, when he was Quidditch captain and prefect and all that. Someone to be _admired_. He wasn't sure what he was now, and he supposed the remaining Slytherins who stayed away weren't very sure either. 

Well, they were right not to regard him as their leader. He’d chosen the wrong side; he’d lost the privilege. That was fine with Draco. Somehow it all just didn't seem important.

His thoughts were interrupted by the welcome speech, even longer and more rallying than usual, thanks to the fact that several Ministry officials had been invited to make additional speeches and assure them that the War was over and the school was safe. 

That last point, expressed by a pale, stout man--the new head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement--made Draco smile without humor. He glanced around the Great Hall, noting each ill-favoured look and glare in his direction--in the direction of the small contingent of ex-Slytherins. 

Safe at school. What a joke. 

Then there was an explosion. 

The podium behind which the pale, stout man was standing erupted into a series of fire bursts. The man jumped back as more fire shot forth, seemingly out of thin air, catching at the fabric of his tailored robes. In a moment, the room was filled with dark, blinding smoke, and everyone--professors and students and guests alike--was scrambling for cover under the tables. 

When it appeared that the fire wasn't going to stop despite a jumble of spells cast by the professors, people started to make a desperate dash toward the doors. Several of them pushed Draco off his seat in the process. 

Draco’s heart pounded madly in his chest. He couldn't take his eyes away from the burning podium. The fire seemed to be getting closer and closer. He realized with a start that this was because it _was_. 

From what seemed like a very far distance away, a woman who sounded like McGonagall bellowed, "Evacuate the hall! Go up to your dormitories!" 

_We haven't got any dormitories,_ Draco's brain chattered. No Houses and now no dormitories--what could the School Board have been thinking? But still the voice kept instructing them to evacuate to their non-existent dormitories while Draco stood frozen, watching the advancing flames. 

Someone stepped on his foot, and another someone ran into him a moment later, shaking him out of his reverie. 

"--the hell?" It was Potter. Draco wished he could be anywhere but here. As usual, his wish went unfulfilled. 

"I already saved you from fiery death, Malfoy. It was a one-time thing." 

"Fuck off, Potter!" Draco snapped. Then he realized he probably should have said ' _thank you_ ' or something redundant like that back then, and he didn't remember if he had. He'd be damned it he was going to say it now and give Potter the satisfaction when he was being a bloody gitface during a _terrorist attack_. Out of principle he turned away from Potter, and turned right back into the face of the spreading fire. _Fucking shit._

He heard an annoyingly exasperated sigh from behind him, and then a hand gripped his arm hard. "Come on," Potter said, "the exit's this way," as if he thought Draco were a halfwit. 

Draco would have under _any_ other circumstance jerked his hand away, but once out of the fire's thrall, he was just too busy running for his life to bother. Only it wasn't really _running_ since the doors were half-closed and everyone was trying to squeeze out between them all at once. There were far fewer students this year than in previous years, and for that Draco was thankful--any more and they'd be trapped in the Great Hall, half of them devoured by the flames. 

"It all comes of having doors that open inward," Draco muttered distractedly, still being towed along by his wrist after Potter. 

"What?" Potter asked in an equally distracted way. Draco realized he was babbling out loud the way he usually did when he was terrified of being buried alive in flames. 

"Nothing," he said more loudly, surreptitiously elbowing some people aside so they could get pass. He needed to get out of there so Potter could finally let go of him and his wrist could begin healing from the death grip. _I'll save Malfoy's life again,_ Potter must've thought, _but I'll make it fun for myself by crushing a few of his bones in my insanely strong grip while I'm at it._

Any minute now, he would undoubtedly burst into maniacal laughter. 

And then they crossed the threshold, by dint of much shoving and rather vicious elbowing, and they were out. Never had the hall seemed so welcome in all the six years Draco had attended Hogwarts. He took a deep breath, and it seemed freer, even though they were still surrounded by people. 

He realized with a jolt that Potter was still holding his wrist. He tugged at it ineffectually, thinking darkly that perhaps he should have preferred the fire, if he was now permanently attached to Potter at the wrist. 

Potter was still walking like a madman and not letting go, and for a moment Draco thought Potter was just going to walk right out of the school with him in tow, but Potter by-passed the hall leading to the school entrance and went right up the stairs until their were both standing before a door that had suddenly materialized. Potter dragged him in. 

Then, _finally_ , he let go. 

There was a bed in the room. Draco sank onto it gratefully, a little winded. "The Room of Requirement," he said in a flat voice. Great. What a way to start the new school year.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments/kudos appreciated <3


End file.
